Sugar and Ice
The Washington Post – Mary Quattlebaum: Messner creates believable tensions among characters and especially within the main character…Contemporary kids, a-whirl in extracurriculars, will be able to relate to likable Claire. They will cheer her through double axels, difficult decisions and a number of surprising turns in the final chapters.
Big Nate On a Roll
Big Nate is on a roll! Nate’s a big deal in his scout troop . . . until Artur—aka Mr. Perfect—joins up. Now Nate’s stuck in second place. And Artur means business. Will Nate take the grand prize? Or wipe out, big time?
The Bridge to Never Land
Publishers Weekly Pearson and Barry bring their Starcatchers series into the modern day, injecting it with a dose of metafiction in the process. Siblings Sarah and Aidan Cooper, ages 17 and 15, know all about Peter Pan's secret origin, having read the Starcatchers books when they were younger, but they never dreamed it could be […]
Zinnia's Zaniness
The penultimate episode in the Sisters Eight saga! Finally! Zinnia’s turn has arrived. The poor girl has been waiting for her time in the spotlight quite long enough. Really, it would be cruel to make her wait any longer. What will her power and her gift be? Will either of them prove to be as […]
Fear Itself
School Library Journal Gr 3 5—In the second installment (2011) in the series by Andrew Clements, Benjamin Pratt and his friend Jill are still trying to save their historic New England school from demolition by amusement-park developers. After the untimely death of the school janitor, Mr. Keane, the new hire, seems to be stalking Ben […]
Spellbound
Kirkus Reviews The second installment of The Books of Elsewhere (The Shadows, 2010) is a by-the-book fantasy follow-up. Olive has yet to find a solution to the last plot thread left over from the first volume—Morton is trapped, unable to rejoin the world outside of the McMartins' enchanted paintings. Meanwhile, the Linden Street setting is […]
Franklin and Winston : a Christmas That Changed the World
Kirkus Reviews An engaging chronicle of the month that Roosevelt and Churchill spent together at the White House, forging an affectionate friendship as well as a world-changing alliance. In the waning days of 1941, when prospects for victory in either Europe or the Pacific were dismal, the two leaders optimistically engaged in a marathon series […]
The Elephant Scientist
In the sprawling African scrub desert of Etosha National Park, they call her “the mother of all elephants.†Holding binoculars closely to her eyes, American scientist Caitlin O’Connell could not believe what she was seeing from these African elephants: as the mighty matriarch scanned the horizon, the other elephants followed suit, stopped midstride, and stood […]
Dogs In the Dead of Night
Jack and Annie are ready for their next adventure in the New York Times bestselling middle-grade series—the Magic Tree House! Beware of avalanches! When the magic tree house whisks Jack and Annie back in time to the highest pass in the Swiss Alps, they discover an ancient monastery filled with monks and Saint Bernard dogs. […]
Out of My Mind
The Washington Post – Mary Quattlebaum In Melody, author Sharon Draper creates an authentic character who insists, through her lively voice and indomitable will, that the reader become fully involved with the girl in the pink wheelchair. Details such as the messy particulars of Melody's daily routine, her anger over being babied intellectually and the […]